Football Season Guide

Yet another post-winter break fight-back saw Augsburg climb out of the relegation zone to relative safety last season. Augsburg had collected just nine points from their first 17 games and were 11 points away from safety at one stage of the campaign. But an excellent run of form following the winter break that yielded 24 points in the second half of their campaign saw them climb out of the relegation zone and secure their safety with a victory over Greuther Furth on the final day of the season. Coach Markus Weinzierl will be hopeful that his side can avoid another close finish this time around but is aware that it will be another difficult season for his side with South Korean duo Dong-Won Ji and Ja-Cheol Koo, who played key roles in Augsburg's survival bid, leaving the club. Sascha Molders' injury early in the season meant that Augsburg struggled for goals and Weinzierl has moved quickly to address the problem, signing on Halil Altintop from Trabzonspor. Torsten Oehrl has been sold to Eintracht Braunschweig while Stephan Hain, Milan Petrzela and Sebastian Langkamp have been released from the club. Simon Jentzsch has retired which means that Alexander Manninger will start as the first choice keeper for Augsburg though they have also managed to sign on Marwin Hitz from Wolfsburg. Raphael Holzhauser has been signed on loan from Stuttgart and is likely to replace Ji in the center of the midfield while another loanee Panagiotis Vlachodimos from Olympiacos Piraeus is expected to provide competition to Andre Hahn on the right wing.